OPINION: We Need To Shift the Dialogue on African Migration to Europe
Many young Africans are migrating to Europe for better opportunities. (Needpix)
Marianna Aslund (SFS ‘22) is a guest writer for the Caravel's opinion section. The content and opinions of this piece are the writer’s and the writer’s alone. They do not reflect the opinions of the Caravel or its staff.
A surprising report from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on African migration to Europe shed new light on the real reasons for this phenomenon. In response to the report, as well as to Africa’s rapidly growing population and lack of jobs and Europe’s declining birth rate and need for labor, we need to change the way we discuss migration. The pattern of migration from Africa to Europe demonstrates the need for more robust economic development in Africa, as well as an opportunity—rather than a crisis—for Europe.
The report, “Scaling Fences: Voices of Irregular African Migrants to Europe,” recorded responses from 1,970 people who migrated from Africa to Europe, originating from 39 countries. The common Western view of African migration is that the majority of African migrants are forced to flee due to violence or hopelessness.
While issues of violence are prevalent on the continent, the report detailed that at the time of their departure, 49 percent of respondents had regular jobs and nine percent were in school. Furthermore, of those with jobs, the majority were earning 60 percent more than their national averages. Yet, even those migrants who had steady, relatively high salaries cited lack of economic opportunity as a major reason for leaving their home countries.
The journey from Africa to Europe is often very dangerous, as 93 percent of respondents confirmed, and yet only two percent said that knowledge of those risks would have changed their mind about leaving home. This evident persistence among young Africans to migrate to Europe for reasons other than to escape violence demonstrates that we need to reframe the discussion on the causes behind this recent trend.
UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner said of the report, “‘Scaling Fences’ highlights that migration is a reverberation of development progress across Africa, albeit progress that is uneven and not fast enough to meet people’s aspirations. Barriers to opportunity, or ‘choice-lessness,’ emerge from this study as critical factors informing the calculation of these young people.”
While economic and political development have been taking place in Africa, this has clearly been insufficient. Sub-Saharan African countries in particular need to make vast structural adjustments, especially in terms of creating jobs for the rapidly growing population of young people. European foreign direct investment and trade can be a very promising source of broader economic and job development in Africa. Evidence shows that European programs that only aim to deter migration do not go deep enough and will not stop migration nor help development in the long term. Better social services, such as education and unemployment benefits, can also be beneficial in bolstering citizens’ economic prospects.
One survey respondent, Serge, said, “It is the imperialistic policies that pressure people to migrate. The governing policies that entrench people in poverty, that don’t develop anything. Schools that don’t exist, failing health. And corruption. Repression.”
According to a recent survey, about 50 percent of citizens across ten EU countries believe that migrants are taking away jobs and social services. While some Europeans might view African migrants as a homogeneous group and a burden on their societies, the UNDP report shows that the reasons for migration are varied and most often relate to the search for economic opportunity. Additionally, most African immigrants have a better education than their peers in their native countries. As the European population ages, young African migrants can fill the growing need for labor.
The UN projects Africa’s population will increase from about 1.6 billion to 2.4 billion in 2050, while Europe’s population is expected to decline slightly. Given this massive growth differential and the greater quantity of jobs at higher wages available in Europe, this wave of northbound migration will likely continue for decades to come. As such, both continents’ societies and economies will need to adjust, and both can benefit from these demographic changes. The first step toward such progress is recognizing both who the migrants are and the real reasons why they move.
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